Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as "Kunming Institute of Botany") is a scientific research institution directly under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an important comprehensive research institution in the field of Botany and phytochemistry in China. Kunming Plant is trained as "originally extremely vital plants and plants in mountains and rivers", aiming at understanding plants, using plants and benefiting the people.

The predecessor of Kunming Institute of Botany was the Yunnan Institute of agriculture and forestry, which was jointly established by the Institute of static biology and the Department of education of Yunnan Province in July, 1938. In April, 1950, it was transferred to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and renamed Kunming workstation of Institute of plant taxonomy, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In March, 1953, it was renamed Kunming workstation of Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In April 1959, the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was officially established with the approval of the national science and Technology Commission. Sun hang, the current director, and Li Hongwei, the Secretary of the Party committee.

At the beginning of the establishment of the Institute, Kunming Institute of Botany gathered many famous botanists and scholars in China, which opened the precedent for Chinese people to study Yunnan plants. The older generation of botanists, fearing the hardships of work and life, devoted themselves to serving the country scientifically and laid a solid foundation for Yunnan Botany research. In 1963, Kunming Institute of Botany put forward the policy of "flowers bloom in three zones, fruits bear in all directions, flowers compete for beauty, and flowers bloom in all directions", built a comprehensive research institute, and developed and utilized plant resources to serve the national economic construction. After the reform and opening up, China has ushered in the spring of science, and Kunming Institute of botany has entered an unprecedented period of development. In 1998, Kunming Institute of Botany was launched as the first batch of pilot units of the "knowledge innovation project" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has put forward the policy of "three orientations and four pioneers" to run the academy and launched the classification reform of the "four types of institutions" of the Institute. In 2015, the Kunming Institute of Botany was launched as the first batch of pilot units of the "four types of institutions" characteristic Institute.

Since the establishment of the Institute, the development of various undertakings of Kunming Institute of botany has always been closely combined with national needs. In the 1940s, Meiyan dajinyuan was introduced, the adaptability was proved by trial planting and cultivation, and high-quality seedlings were cultivated to help the development of Yunnan tobacco industry; In the 1950s, he actively participated in the investigation of rubber suitable forest land, determined the suitable areas for rubber planting, broke the imperialist blockade on New China, and laid the foundation for the national self-reliance development of natural rubber industry; In 1956, the establishment of "nature reserves" was proposed, and in 1999, the construction of "germplasm resources bank" was proposed to provide forward-looking and strategic strategies for national biodiversity protection; In 2001, it approved the construction of the first National Key Laboratory in Yunnan Province, which provided strategic support for the development of Phytochemistry and the sustainable utilization of plant resources in the West; Compiling and researching monographs such as flora of China (Chinese and English Edition), flora of Yunnan, flora of Tibet and floristic geography of Chinese seed plants, we have found out the family background of Chinese plants and laid a scientific foundation for the sustainable utilization of plant resources; Research and develop a number of new drugs such as "gastrodin", "Gongxuening", "qingyangshen", "yankangshu tablets", "aconitine a", "shenshuaoguosu tablets", "sheath stamen flower", "compound sh", "orsen leside", "lampstand leaf alkaloid", "fencrolone", "lfg-53", and make important contributions to the development of national natural drugs; Solve the artificial cultivation of Gastrodia elata, Lactarius matsutake and truffle, break through the key technology of morel industrialization, select new varieties of Yunnan camellia, azalea, Primula, orchid and so on, and decode the genome of tea plants, so as to provide support for the development of local economy and industry in Yunnan.

In the new era and new stage, Kunming Institute of Botany will keep in mind its original mission, care about "national affairs", shoulder "national responsibilities", focus on the major needs of ecological civilization and people's life and health, base on Southwest China, radiate Southeast Asia and the Himalayas, and face the regions along the "the Belt and Road", promote the in-depth intersection of disciplines, and improve the innovation chain integration ability of strategic plant resources investigation and evaluation, collection and preservation, exploration and utilization, Build a National Biodiversity Research Center, a strategic biological resources reserve, a natural products library, an incubation base for achievement industries, a senior talent training base and a knowledge dissemination base, and become a world-class research institution with distinctive characteristics, excellent research and important influence.

Kunming Institute of Botany currently has 530 registered employees (368 for posts and 162 for projects), 2 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 191 personnel with senior professional and technical titles, and 113 graduate instructors. There are two first-class disciplines of biology and pharmacy, and four second-class doctoral and master training centers of Botany, biochemistry and molecular biology, pharmaceutical chemistry and pharmacology, as well as two professional master training centers of biology and medicine and pharmacy. There are 601 postgraduate students, including 243 doctoral students, including 24 international students; There are 358 master's students, including 12 international students.

Kunming Institute of Botany now has 4 national scientific research platforms: State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and sustainable utilization of Western plant resources, Southwest China Wildlife germplasm resource bank, national important wild plant germplasm resource bank, and demonstration international scientific and technological cooperation base of plant diversity and sustainable utilization of resources; There are 7 provincial and ministerial scientific research platforms: Key Laboratory of plant diversity and biogeography in East Asia, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Engineering Laboratory of natural active small molecule function excavation, Yunnan Key Laboratory of natural pharmaceutical chemistry, Yunnan Key Laboratory of wild resource plant research and development, Yunnan Key Laboratory of integrated protection of very small populations of wild plants, Yunnan Key Laboratory of fungal diversity and green development National local joint engineering laboratory for natural drug activity screening (Yunnan); There are two scientific Botanical Gardens: Kunming Botanical Garden and Lijiang Alpine botanical garden. One national field station: Yunnan Provincial field scientific observation and research station of Lijiang forest ecosystem. Two provincial-level field stations: Lijiang forest ecosystem Yunnan field scientific observation and research station, Diqing Baima Snow Mountain high mountain periglacial ecosystem Yunnan field scientific observation and research station.

The State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and sustainable utilization of Western plant resources collected 11546 monomer compounds and 5403 plant extracts, covering more than 200 families, 610 genera and more than 1200 plants. It is one of the international important natural product centers; By the end of 2021, the southwest China Wildlife germplasm resource bank has preserved 10917 species of native wild plant seeds (accounting for 36% of the total number of flowering plant species in China) and 87863 copies; The herbarium (Kun) has more than 1.6 million specimens, which is the second largest herbarium in China; Kunming Botanical Garden has introduced more than 8700 species of cultivated plants, and built the "Fuli Palace", the plant greenhouse with the largest single area in China.

Kunming Institute of Botany now hosts three English Academic Journals: plant diversity (PD), natural products and bioprospecting (NPB) and fungal diversity (FD). In 2021, the PD impact factor increased to 2.528, ranking Q2; NPB simulation impact factor increased to 2.827; The FD influence factor reached 20.372, continuously ranking first in the field of mycology. All three journals were selected into the list of top journals with international influence in 2021, among which FD was selected as "China's most internationally influential academic journals" (top 5%), PD and NPB were selected as "China's internationally influential excellent academic journals" (top 5-10%).